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Omaha/Douglas
County History Timeline |
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1671 |
The Omaha tribe was first mentioned as “Mahas”, a wandering nation” on a Marquette map. It placed them just east of the Missouri River, probably in central Iowa. |
1682 |
Sieur de La Salle claimed all the territory drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries for France and gave the region the name of Louisiana. Nebraska was included in this claim. |
1700 |
The first journal reference to the Omaha tribe was made in Beaurain’s “Memoire”. Pierre Charles le Sueur never visited the Omahas, but he recorded from other reports that the Omahas lived in a village of 400 dwellings, with a population of about 4000 people. This village is generally believed to have been located on the Big Sioux River (once called the “River of the Maha”) south of present-day Sioux Falls, South Dakota. |
1714 | French-born Etienne Veniarde de Bourgment led an expedition from the mouth of the Missouri River to the mouth of the Platte River. An early explorer of the Missouri basin, he may have gone as far as the Niobrara River. |
1718 |
The Omaha tribe was mapped by Delisle as “The Maha, a wandering nation” along the northern stretch of the Missouri River. |
1720 | Spaniard Pedro de Villasur led an overland expedition from Santa Fe as far north as Nebraska. Near the fork of the North and South Platte Rivers in south central Nebraska, he and many of his party were killed in a battle with the Indians. |
c. 1735 | The first Omaha village west of the Missouri River was established on Bow Creek in present-day Cedar County, Nebraska. |
1739 |
Peter and Paul Mallet, French-Canadian explorers and traders, reached the mouth of what they named the Platte River. From there they went cross-country to explore southwest following the South Fork of the Platte River. |
1755 | The new Omaha village was near the present location of the tribe. The village was probably at Homer, Nebraska, and 15 miles north of present-day Macy. The Poncas split from the Omahas during this time and moved further up the Missouri River to present-day Knox County, Nebraska. |
1762 |
The Treaty of Fontainebleau concluded, by which France ceded that part of the Province of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain. The future Nebraska became a part of the Spanish possessions in America. |
1775 | Omahas, numbering 3000-4000, built a village called Ton won tonga, or “Big Village” near present-day Homer, Nebraska. This was the village of Black Bird, the most famous of the early Omaha chiefs. Under Black Bird, the Omahas were a powerful military force and wielded great influence. Their location along the Missouri River gave them a key position as “gate keeper” for the French fur traders. “Omaha” means “those going against the wind or current”, or “Upriver People”. |
1777 |
Fur trapping for the white man’s trade became economically important to the Omahas. French traders became trade partners. |
1783 |
The Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War fixed the Mississippi River as the western boundary of the United States. |
1794 |
Jean-Baptiste Truteau operated a trading post thirty miles up the Niobrara River, reporting that the Missouri River was navigable for a great distance, and kept detailed records of his travels. |
1795 |
A Scotsman named John McKay established a trading post on the west bank of the Missouri River, about 12 or 15 miles below the present town of Dakota City, and gave it the name of Fort Charles. This was probably the first white man’s establishment within the present limits of Nebraska, and was under Spanish control. Spanish-sponsored explorers and fur traders James McKay and John Evans reached the Omaha Village and met Blackbird, the powerful and feared Chief of the Omaha Indians. Lewis and Clark had with them a copy of a map made by Evans when they ascended the Missouri River a few years later. Spanish subject Jacques D’Eglise traveled the Nebraska-Iowa corridor as he headed north in search of the Northwest Passage and a $3,000 prize offered by the Spanish General Governor of Louisiana if he reached the Pacific Ocean. D’Eglise did not go beyond the Mandan Villages in North Dakota. |
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